Witholding my rent AIBU

[littledragon99]

I'm a woman in my late 40s, living in a 3-bed Victorian terrace in West London, where I pay £1,200 a month with all bills included. I signed an AST in May.
I work in recruitment and DJ on the side. Despite being skilled in my job, financial difficulties have arisen following my mother’s death, and I've struggled with timely rent payments. I’m currently in therapy to manage my depression.
Recently, my landlady has begun Airbnb-ing the living room, removing the communal space I was paying for. Given this change, I believe the £1,200 rent is no longer justified.
Additionally, she inappropriately contacted my boss, (my boss was my reference) about paying rent directly and has threatened eviction. I’ve consulted Citizens Advice and suspect my deposit wasn’t placed in a Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), which may breach legal requirements.
Due to these issues, I’ve withheld my rent since August 1st and am prepared to take further action if needed.

Maybe she has ADHD or has been struggling with her mental health and that’s why she put your deposit in the TDS late…

You don’t seem to grant her the same flexibility and understanding that you expect back.

Never become a landlord though OP can you imagine the absolute chaos that would ensue with rent and deposit payments and contracts.

The £1750 and £1850 were to catch me up
2nd month I paid 11 days late

Why don’t you just pay your rent by standing order? Then it wouldn’t be late every month. Definitely pay your landlord the rent you owe. If you are evicted, and from what you’ve said that is very likely what will happen, you are going to find it very hard to find another place.

Seriously op the actual semantics don’t matter right now.

You need to pay your rent or move out somewhere cheaper. You cannot and will not be allowed to stay living there and not paying.

Your landlady and rightly so can get a ccj against you making it even harder for rentals / loans and even getting a mobile phone contract.

OP - pay your rent. There is nothing that will mitigate the consequences for you. You cannot live for free. Just leave or pay.

You know you can't do that though? Rent needs to be paid in full, on time every month or you will be evicted sooner or later. The sooner you acknowledge that you can't afford this place the better.

This.

You obviously can’t afford this rental. You need to find a cheaper option and there definitely are cheaper options available in London.

This is ridiculous. Set up a standing order.

Do you think you perhaps took this responsibility on without actually being able to afford it?

I would advise you to pay your rent first above all other debts. Credit card companies cannot make you homeless, whereas not paying your rent can.

You can get advice from CAB regards your debt and you can even write to the companies yourself proposing a lower monthly payment and asking them to freeze the interest.

You really do need to pay your rent first though.

I'm a renter and not a LL but I do think LLs need to be treated with more respect than they are. They have essentially chosen the tenant to live in their home and have entrusted them with that responsibility. The tenant has agreed in a legally binding contract to pay the agreed rent. LLs have costs to cover such as replacing appliances, replacing items due to wear and tear, and in many cases, paying to evict tenants, clear their house out from rubbish left behind etc. This is someone's house that they have paid for with their hard earned money. Tenants need to have more respect. Of course LLs need to make a profit, there would be no point them renting out a property without making a profit.

However, I do agree that there are nightmare LLs out there who take extortionately large rents and don't maintain the property and essentially force people to live in misery.

Did your boss give accurate financial information in his reference?
If he didn’t then another possible eviction ground is that the tenancy was granted based on a false reference.
As your landlord previously lived in the property she could start eviction action on the grounds of wanting to move back in once the 6 months fixed term expires.
Both of the above are covered by section 8, so are not affected by the deposit.
Section 8 evictions can also award the landlord court costs and other amounts such as rent arrears.
If you don’t pay within the set time you will have a CCJ, which will make it very hard to obtain another tenancy.
You could of course take separate action to try to obtain compensation from your landlord for the late protection of your deposit ( or whatever part of it was protected after 30 days if not paid all at once) and your landlord would probably be ordered to return your deposit and pay you anywhere between one and three times that amount in compensation. She is allowed to make a claim against the deposit for rent arrears, and could counter claim against the compensation award to pay for remaining rent arrears and her court eviction costs.
You seem to be wanting someone to come along and reassure you that you can remain where you are, use all facilities, pay nothing and still be legally or morally right because your landlord has protected your deposit late. No sensible person is going to tell you that that is an appropriate course of action.

Is she licensed with the council? Which Borough are you in?

So in two weeks when you get your paycheck September rent is due. So you will still owe 2400 + whatever.

what is your plan @littledragon99 ? I don’t think you’re going to be living there long. I would start by working with your LL to negotiate a neutral reference 😐

I mean, it's totally out of order for the LL to remove the communal space if this is something that you and the other two residents paid for and was marketed for when you took on your rooms. I'd also check what the legislation is around communal space & HMOs as it may be a required amount of space under legislation. If not, I'm surprised the LL didn't let it out as 4x rooms originally!

But aside from that, don't withhold your rent. If you definitely decide to then make sure to keep it in a separate account that you can evidence, but I really wouldn't. I'd negotiate with your LL to get your rent lowered. If you have consistently not been paying rent on time like they have said to you, and are now withholding the full rent then you are being far from an ideal tenant too.

The rent sounds expensive, but if it's a decent area in London & has all bills included then is it not quite reasonable for the area? (I'm in Scotland so completely different market).

Speak to Shelter or Citizen's advice about how to manage the negotiation with your LL, but flat out not paying any rent when you are living there won't be in your best interests in the long run.

You can check your deposit BTW, just go onto each of the registered deposit scheme websites and check if it is registered.

DH and I are landlords, no we aren't big property moguls this is his flat from single days that we rent out as a HMO, we have a mortgage on a family home. For various reasons, at times it has been our sole source of income. Now it's pretty much half our income as I'm out of work not through choice.
We had a repeated late paying tenant recently, it's really difficult and stressful to cope with this from LLs perspective but this tenant was self employed and had a drop in income, eventually we mutually agreed to part ways.
OP seems to think the LLs income doesn't matter, it's a completely selfish view point and a little bit 'sixth former Anaaarchy' if I'm honest, like those who protest the state whilst simultaneously reaping the benefits.

Grow up, OP

The Marylebone Project helps homeless women.

You need to stop obsessing about the deposit. Your LL knows the rules of the game - she’ll most likely move back in before the end of your tenancy and won’t renew it. You’ll owe 3 months rent by 10 September. I’m sorry, but I think you’re out then.

Rinse and repeat. You need to forget ways to try and get one over on your landlady, and just follow the above.

If you don’t, you will end up homeless - it’s that simple.🤷‍♀️

Yes it's an incredible attitude from someone in their 40s.

OP you are not helping yourself in any sense. Set up a bloody direct debit before you are out on your are with even more bad credit!! ADHD and bad mental health are not excuses and will not help you explain why you can’t get anywhere else to rent once you’ve been kicked out. If your debts and rent are too much per month, look for somewhere cheaper. If you can’t afford your debts, speak to stepchange, but Jesus h Christ pay your bloody rent! Your LLs income is nothing to do with you, she could be earning millions in lots of other rentals, either way it’s not your business and still not an excuse to not pay your rent. Sounds like your LL has been a saint putting up with your late payments and forgoing proper checks so you could actually have a roof over your head.

@littledragon99 where did you live previously? Were you renting?

The living room was not communal space according to the OPs contract.

I actually feel sorry for the landlady in this situation. You are consistently paying late, or not at all and she cant do anything about it yet and it will take her a long time until she can evict you, costing her more money.

And all you care about is trying to find loopholes that will cost her more money.

OP you are focusing on the communal space as a reason for withholding rent. But the real reason is that you can’t afford your rent.

You say you have a tendency to stick your head in the sand when things are difficult and I think you’re doing this here. Focusing on the communal space and trying to find reasons that justify your actions rather than facing up to the fact you can’t afford your rent.

If the Landlord sorted everything out, made the lounge available again, and moved all their stuff out, you would still be in this predicament.

I know you find it overwhelming and scary, but you need to accept this place isn’t working for you. You need to find somewhere cheaper and move before your actions here make it harder for you to find accommodation or, god forbid, your landlord gets their act together and manages to evict you leaving you homeless and with no obligation on the council to help you.

You can still pursue the landlord for money back because of her failure to follow regulations - this may include money for putting your deposit in the TDL late and failing to provide you with the appropriate notice and, possibly, all your rent if she should be registered as an HMO but isn’t. This could provide you with a lump sum that will help with getting you financially more secure. But for now, look for somewhere you can afford with your current income and debts. And start prioritising paying your rent, get into a debt management scheme to help make things easier. Look for a salaried job if you have difficulty managing inconstant income. Your current lifestyle doesn’t seem to work for you but you can make choices that will make life less stressful and easier to navigate.

OP you are in a way worse position than you realise. You are very much at risk of being evicted and soon, and if you are evicted due to not paying your rent the council will deem you to have made yourself homeless, thus they have no obligation to home you.
You are honestly risking making yourself homeless, like actually rough sleeping homeless, in a matter of weeks.
Give yourself a short sharp shake, and bloody pay your rent!!!

If the deposit isn't protected she can't serve s21 but I think she can serve s8 as soon as you're two months late and you now owe two months...

I think going quiet on her is the worst surely. Try and negotiate a payment plan. Let her know money is coming and you're not just planning to hold our forever